Car News, Specs and Reviews

Raging Bull – Aventador Superveloce LP 750-4

Buckle up for a wild ride in the Lamborghini Aventador Superveloce, the fastest Lambo ever made.

The Formula 1–favorite Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain is no place for the timid — and until recently, no place for a Lamborghini, long a nonentity on major racetracks. But now I’m bombing around this rollicking course in the Italian brand’s most powerful production car ever, the Aventador LP 750-4 Superveloce.

It’s not for the timid, either — or, for that matter, the average driver: Only 200 of them will be sold

in North America, starting at US$493,095 each. The Aventador combines nuance with a murderous headlong charge — lightened and buttressed with carbon fiber, its brain stuffed with algorithms like some comic-book experiment. But those are just the basics. Here’s what makes this beast so stupid-fast:

THE NAME

Aventador is another in a long line of Lambos to be named after a fighting bull, and Superveloce is Italian for “superfast.” Though it sounds more persuasive when you affect an accent and waggle pursed fingers in front of your best De Niro-as-Corleone face. Sup-ehr-ve-LO-che!

THE ENGINE

A 750-hp, 6.5-liter V-12 rests behind the driver’s and passenger’s noggins, fills eardrums with rock-opera bombast, and snaps necks with exhilarating force: zero to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds, to 124 mph in 8.6 seconds, and on to a lusty 217-mph peak. For owners with the balls (and real estate) to pursue top speed, a carbon-fibre rear wing manually adjusts to boost downforce, keeping the Superveloce from taking flight like a hijacked F-16.

THE GUTS

Weight-slashing carbon fibre is everywhere, from the car’s space frame to its cinematic body and bucket seats — and even a carbon “skin” wrapping the cabin. An improved Haldex all-wheel-drive unit faithfully transfers that power to the pavement, via some of the biggest, stickiest 21-inch Pirelli tires ever mounted on a sports car. And where Lamborghini’s notoriously lurching automated transmissions used to call for an airsickness bag, a seamless single-clutch automated manual unit cuts shift times to just 50 milliseconds — within spitting distance of an F1 racer.

THE FEEL

Like a commander-in-chief preparing to annihilate, drivers flip open a red metal cap on the console to access the engine start button. Once this missile is armed, brilliant animations fill the Virtual Cockpit driver’s display to flaunt things like the Superveloce’s bellowing 8,500-rpm redline. Pilots manage a network of real-time systems, including a magnetic suspension that adapts instantaneously to g-forces and other road conditions.

As I blast toward the first turn, the new Lamborghini Dynamic Steering adjusts ratios on the fly — speeding response in tight corners, enabling lightning reactions without the awkward arm-twisting. Because even when this car slows down, it finds a way to speed up.